use Perl

I've only just noticed this:

http://www.sun.com/training/catalog/courses/DTP-250.xml

Generally I think of slashdot as over-opinionated noise. Occasionally something good comes up:

http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=467516&cid=22571238

Clothes are just a communication protocol: Learn the spec and use it when appropriate.

Regardless of your views on Global warming, energy is becoming a more expensive commodity - if you believe in the power of supply and demand, an expanding, more demanding global population should see to that.

I think therefore, that unless people have money to pass as liquid indirectly into a sewage processing system, energy conservation needs to be on everyones minds in the next few years.

The thing is, If I can make an observation, as a species we are lazy, easily distracted and quick to jump onto a bangwagon. Witness the sale of wind turbines in suburban areas, where chances are they are never going to provide a return on investment. Is it saving the planet, a way of dispersing guilt, or a status symbol?

Regardless of that, though, I think its fair to say that the argument that change is fairly inevitable. Personally, I'm dissapointed with the governments approach to nuclear power, as it seems pretty short sighted - and fails to address the true, inevitable issue of consumption. At the end of the day, these things seem to need to be both near the coast, and protected from erosion for many centuries. With predicted rising sea levels, building these extremely delicate devices this close to a known danger seems pretty reckless... Especially on an island where land changes hands at the level it does at the moment.

So rather than trying to subsidise supply with future income, why can't the other half of the equation be dealt with? A Solar panel may well not be able to power your refridgerator but it can charge your mobile phone - and lets not take cold maths to the economics of it in terms of power consumption to charge a phone - many, many people leave the chargers plugged in 24/7.

"Zero Carbon" sounds very cool, but it's more niche than mainstream, so whats wrong with aiming for low carbon? Look at the electrical devices in every room - how many are left on standby, and how many need to be - sure, your alarm clock, fridge, freezer, video recording are at least significantly more easy to be left on, but your TV, Hifi, Laptop? Why only one circuit per room ( /rooms ) - from a user perspective wouldn't it be easy to switch the green switch to send a room into power saving mode - that is leave the video on and turn the telly, chocolate fountain, and lava lamp off? And does a microwave need a clock - what on earth is that all about? - in some cases the damn things don't even work unless you set the effing time! Which idiot decided to try to make you keep a machine on for 24 hours that can cook your dinner in 3 minutes and 45 seconds?

I feel it worthwhile noting that it's not just some green crusade I'm on. As a "victim" of a prepayment meter the cost between standby and off is very very visible - going away for a week costs such a tiny fraction of being here - and I'm convinced a significant proportion of that is ate up by me not pulling the plug.

The point I'm trying to make is that we don't have to make a massive change in order to reduce our energy dependency. We just need to demand more thought, and sensible changes to legislation. Theres enough clever people out there to make a low power lifestyle convenient, after all, regardless of anyones beliefs on the future of our environment, using less should make sense to anyone?

Over the last few days, mesin, n me fine missus have bin watchin the bbc 1981 hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Its been a thoroughly enjoyable series. We tried to find series two. We couldn't. It felt a bit odd that it finished in episode 6. Is that just our faulty memory and imagination playing tricks with each other?

We are trying to watch the filmy cinemary version.

deep thought.

So Very Very Wrong.

Relation ship between Arthur and Trillian.

Wrong. Why does it drag on so?

What I really really can't get over is that I thought there was more than six episodes in the tv series - were the rest in my imaginanation?

Me missus is just asking where slarty bardfast is.

Help me. Tell me they filmed series two in the eighties... please...

Oh yes. The jack daniels bit. Just tried adding it to my burgers, which generally tasted just plenty fine as I had em. Turned out they weren't any better, maybe a tad worse. Next time I'll stick to how they were.

I like portable computers. I like the convenience of being able to take a portable machine with me.

However, I have a small issue with the design. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of creativity applied to it, and they all seem to need this breakable hinge to connect the keyboard unit to the screen part.

Why? Wouldn't it be cheaper to have a screen with a thicker base so it would self support, with a socket for a keyboard and mouse - they are mass produced low cost components anyway.

And why am I saying this - because I had a hinge break on one of my laptops, and also because I view the complexity as a cost - the hinge may only be a small component, but when you add some of the other mechanical parts (keyboard and pointer for example ) there starts to be a lot of moving parts, which in my simple rule book means more bits to go wrong and hence more things to test.

And the simple all in one box form should lend its self to a kit form, potential reducing construction cost, increasing the ability to customise and making it simpler to fix things that go wrong.

There are downsides - the traditional laptop is quite portable - however I feel that a lot of Portability issues are easily met using the age old device called "A Bag".

I've seen various articles on the web in the past expressing the opinion that placing swear words in comments should not be a reflection of the programmers profesionalism.

I haven't seen these sort of articles released recently, though have on occasion heard opinions stressed that its ok.

As a general case, I'm of the opinion that as a programmer you are responsible for quality of the entirity of your conribution, which you perform in exchange for your salary.

What the customer/employer decides to do with that code, unless expressed otherwise in the contract is totaly their business - not that of the employees.

Therefore, should the business decide to release the source code for the product, the comments become as public as the user interface.

This leads me to suspect that if I am right in suspecting that "cussing in comments" is passe, the commercialisation of open source could be a contributory factor - or perhaps its just a reflection of the maturity of the industry?

Or maybe I'm wrong, and there is still a belief that delivery of code is limtied to user experience.

Either way I'd be interested in the prevailing attitude towards what people percieve is a professional attide to software development. I'd also be interested if people have the same attitude to code released personally to that developed under contract?

I noticed this beverage at my local jacket potato stall, and decided to purchase and sample this interesting varient on a popular brand of fizzy drink.

I have to admit, at first It struck me that it had never occured to me to mix coca-cola and orange, then I realised I had a few muddy ducks in my time - I don't think I've ever considered it to be a marketable beverage however. After tasting the contents of said can, I came to the conclusion that who-ever concocted this varient probably did as good a job of combining coke and a hint of orange as could be done. I doubt I'll buy another.

Summary: Probably not a mistake to have tasted

Not content with having "Higher Order Perl", and a highly recommended "Domain Driven Design" by Evans on my book shelf in a to read state ( together with GOFs "Design Patterns" which requires work ), I have just recieved my copy of "Perl 6 and Parrot essentials" from Price Cut Books ltd via amazon.co.uk for £4.09 which I consider to be a bargain. Whether I get time to read it before perl 6 is production ready and the equivalent of camel is out I don't know.

Firstly, I passed my sun certified java programmer exam today. Yay! The exam, for those who are unaware is generally considered difficult, and I went into it anticipating failure. I developed the philosophy that each question was testing one thing, it just may not be the one thing that is immediately apparent. I don't know if thats true or not, but as a coping strategy it certainly helped.
As a result of passing the scjp exam being on my 2007 targets, It's probably a good time to revisit my new years resolutions:

2007 Resolutions:

Resolution: Sort out finances

Nope - not by a long shot

Resolution: Learn French

Yup - I am still attending classes

Resolution: Technical Self Development

• * Pass Java Programmers Certification

• woohoo - done!

• * Register for Java Developers certification

• I think I'll sort out my finances before I pay any money to sun for further testing

Resolution: Get Fit

• Reduce Weight to below 13.5 stone by New Years Eve 2007/08

• Still a bit of work to do - just stepped on the scales and was 14.5.

• Have cycled, on average 50 miles a week for each week in 2007

• err, managed 30 I think in total so far...

I think its fair to say there is still someway to go - fortunately I have ten more months to acheive them in. I think there will have to be an awfull lot of cycling if I'm to achieve that goal though...